The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic: A Sociological Analysis

Abstract

A new type of sex crime was discovered in the United States in the 1980s -the sexual abuse of young children in ghastly rituals performed by devil worshippers who happened to be their day care providers. 'Ritual abuse', as this new sex crime came to be termed, appeared to be epidemic during that decade; hundreds of day care centers were investigated and scores of providers were arrested and prosecuted. This article asserts that the day care ritual abuse scare was a moral panic, in fact, the 'purest example' of a moral panic in that the putative threat to children had to be wholly constructed. Using the key sociological elements set out by Cohen (1972Cohen ( /2002, this article analyzes the day care ritual abuse moral panic and concludes by discussing additional key elements that will facilitate future sociological analyses of moral panics.1720 The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic

Moral Panic Analysis: Past, Present and Future

“…Jenkins (1992) compares the two countries. Second came sexual abuse by intimates, notably allegations about ‘satanic’ abuse in day care centres across the USA, analysed by de Young (2004). The third phase of paedophiles has been documented for the USA by Jenkins (1998) and for the UK by Kitzinger (2004).…”

The gothic folk devils strike back! Theorizing folk devil reaction in the post-Columbine era

“…Folk devils' desire to oppose their demonization and gain support from others is also taken up by De Young (2004) in her study of day care ritual abuse moral panics in the USA. De Young uses the scholarship of Bourdieu (1984), in particular his concept of 'capital,' to inform her analysis.…”

“…While researchers from various social science disciplines have continued to embrace Cohen and indeed later scholars, such as Hall et al (1978) or Goode and Nachman (1994) theories about moral panics, other commentators have called for a critical revision of the theory (Thornton and McRobbie 1995, De Young 2004, Critcher 2006. The issue of how folk devils or the 'person or group of persons [who] emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests' respond to how other members of society react to them is one such area that has not been explored in much detail within moral panic studies.…”

Moral Panic and Social Theory

“…More recent assessments argue for a fuller appreciation of the plurality of reactions accompanying moral assertions (see Hier, 2002b;McRobbie, 1994aMcRobbie, , 1994bMcRobbie & Thornton, 1995;de Young, 2004). These critical contributions are especially concerned with illustrating the resistance efforts and gains made against primary definitions and dominant claims, which demonstrate how the expansion of 'new moral minorities' serve not only as the contemporary oppositional political voice (as the distinction between the left and the right becomes almost indistinguishable), but also provides both the vehicle and the support networks through which folk devils can 'fight back'.…”

“…And it is one reflected and indeed reinforced by the reserve with which social theory has engaged with the concept in recent times (see Critcher, 2006: 20;Jewkes, 2004: 65). Accordingly, within the panic literature a call is repeated to look 'beyond' moral panic; to incorporate developments in social theory (such as Beck's 'risk society' and Foucault's 'discursive formations', see Critcher, 2003;Thompson, 1998) and go further than recent 'revisionist' efforts (de Young, 2004;McRobbie, 1994a;McRobbie & Thornton, 1995), which still remain tied to the inherent 'reliance on cognitive, behavioral, and normative measurement criteria' (Hier, 2008: 180) that have been present since Cohen's initial development of the concept.…”